The chief of police has been cleared by a civilian watchdog of allegations that he improperly involved himself in his father-in-law’s traffic court case on the same day that his contract as top cop had been extended by the police services board.

The police board received the Ontario Civilian Police Commission’s report on the probe Monday. It was the board itself, in the wake of a month’s worth of mounting officer pressure, who asked the OCPC to conduct the investigation in March, one month after the Citizen first reported the allegations of conflict-of-interest swirling around Chief Charles Bordeleau’s father-in-law’s traffic court appearance on Jan. 25 of this year.

Lester Thompson’s ticket for careless driving was withdrawn but Bordeleau admitted inquiring who the prosecutor was in the case with a courthouse employee. He said he had done so to inform his wife, a practising lawyer, who was accompanying her father, a former police chief himself, to traffic court.

In a news release issued Wednesday, the board said “The (OCPC) has cleared Chief Bordeleau of any claims of misconduct or unsatisfactory work performance relating to the matter.”

The commission told the board: “The evidence supports a finding that Chief Bordeleau did not engage in misconduct … did not attempt to use his position to influence the outcome of the Highway Traffic Act matter nor to communicate with the prosecutors.”

OCPC also told the board that Thompson’s driving charge was withdrawn because a “civilian witness” did not attend court and that without the witness “There was no reasonable prospect of conviction.” The commission found that this was consistent with how things sometimes play out in traffic court in Ottawa.

The police union, however, is questioning how this investigation could have wrapped up when the Ottawa police officer who ticketed Bordeleau’s father-in-law — Const. Will Cantin — and the civilian courthouse employees involved when the chief of police phoned the courthouse have not been interviewed by the OCPC.

Ottawa Police Association president Matt Skof said the union is “outraged” with the decision. “The OCPC has reached a conclusion based on hearing only the chief’s side of the story,” he said, calling it a failing of “the most fundamental of all investigative procedures.”

Skof alleged that officers have lost confidence in Bordeleau as chief of police and that, at this point, Mayor Jim Watson appears to be the only person who can remedy that.

The union had and its members had refused to participate in the OCPC investigation. The union had wanted the probe delayed.

That’s because Skof had originally filed the exact same complaint to the Office of the Independent Police Review Director. There, it was dismissed on the grounds that members of one force cannot make complaints against each other. In the wake of that dismissal, the board called its own investigation.

The union wanted that first dismissal judicially reviewed to determine whether the complaint should have been heard, before participating in the new, OCPC review. The union requested time to let that happen but, despite the request, the OCPC investigator went ahead and completed their review.

“OCPC’s decision … based on only partial evidence, is a shameful example of failed oversight when an investigation is required into the actions of a chief of police,” Skof said.

Bordeleau’s clearing of misconduct comes as his decision to hire a Somali recruit who failed a background check — prompting the investigator who conducted the check to resign — is facing both internal and external scrutiny. That civilian investigator — Christina Benson — found the recruit was “unsuitable” for a litany of reasons and alleged that the hire was made for “political reasons to appease the Somali Community” after the in-custody death of Abdirahman Abdi on July 24.

The recruit’s hiring and the investigator’s resignation have sparked everything from community allegations of tokenism and unfair police hiring practices to officer concerns of whether or not they will be able to trust their potential backup.

Police board chair Coun. Eli El-Chantiry said he hasn’t seen the investigator’s report, nor has he seen her resignation letter, but that he will ask Bordeleau what led to the investigator’s resignation. Those discussions, since they are on personnel matters, will not be public. The board is quite clear that they want to diversify the force but that needs to be through the hiring of quality candidates, El-Chantiry said.

El-Chantiry also clarified that, to date, the recruit has only been offered “a conditional letter of employment.” He must complete police college and then must be presented to the board for appointment before he is considered a hired police officer.

El-Chantiry said he will ask Bordeleau about the hire but accepts that the recruit had applied well in advance of Abdi’s death and that Bordeleau wanted to meet with the recruit to review his background check before Abdi’s death.

Postmedia has not named the recruit but Bordeleau has gone on record stating that the Somali-Canadian man is a member of the community police-advisory committee and has done work with various outreach and volunteer groups in the city.

El-Chantiry has already called Bordeleau asking how confidential information about the investigator’s report was received by Postmedia and has called for a full investigation. Bordeleau has since launched that investigation.

The chief of police remains the subject of one remaining probe — that one being conducted by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director — over allegations that he misled the police board into agreeing to privatize courthouse security. Bordeleau has vehemently denied those allegations.

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